Sunday, 29 June 2014

well, what can I say? This week has been quite mixed again. Work has been work and home has been home.

Hobby wise, I have been adding to the horde with another Ebay batch of plastic Squat miniatures. I have quite a few now and it is getting to a point where I will have to start putting them together. Unfortunately, I am a bunch of arms short so I will have to take that into account (and sculpt more or see if I can get some other arms from somewhere else... dare I say recast ones?). I have also been investigating transport options and have not really come up with anything... so I am building my own:

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You can't really see much from the above picture... but I have got the shape down to what I want and have put together some wheels too. You will also see that I have some model filler in the picture. That is because I am seriously thinking of getting this cast up (either I will do it or I will pay someone else to) so I need to make sure all the gaps are filled and smoothed down, ready for the mould making process. The plan is to make these standard transports so they will be nothing fancy; just wheeled, armoured boxes. I've still got a long way to go but I am in a bit of a hobby drought at the moment and this seems to be something I am willing to persevere with (at the moment). It always seems to be the warmer weather that slows things down...

So... Friday night was the Sergeants Mess Summer Ball and this year, I took my wife and an additional guest (which was nice). We all had a great time and knocked it on the head after 1am in the morning. I was a little worse for wear and really didn't sleep very well so Saturday was written off and after another rough night (very little sleep) Sunday has been pretty quiet too. It's life in the fast lane at the moment!

Because I am a bit tired, I thought I'd tinker today so my wife got a new bracelet:

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All patriotic! This one is better than the last one because I have joined two looms together now so that I can get longer bracelets... so the stars go all the way around. It took me about half an hour and cost me about 30p... that is great value for a hobby.

You should all be aware that I am a bit of a fan of AT VOTOMs. Well... on my travels through Ebay, I spotted some Gashapon mini-mechs and couldn't believe the price so I had to buy them. I got six 1/60scale VOTOMS mechs (each about 3.5inches tall) for the grand price of £12.99 including postage! How could I refuse? They are made of a slightly rubbery material but are painted and hacve a certain amount of movement. Once I have decided how I am going to deal with them, I will post some pix... but here is a link to five of them: LINK. They are pretty cool, aren't they?

Sunday, 22 June 2014

This week has been one where I just needed to reflect on life and go with the flow. I went to a funeral on Monday and it was a very well run thing but it was the last time I'll ever see my friend, Angie, (even though she was in her transport pod to the next level) again so it does make you think about life and how things go.

So... I have tried to get some hobby stuff done this week but have failed dismally. I have no enthusiasm for it and the ideas that are coming to my mind have become such a burden that I can't focus on any of my on-going projects. The ideas are namely bike designs for Grymn and transport options for Squats... both need to be found and/or created... I am hoping that the transport can be 'off the shelf' but I am expecting the bike to be home made.

What have I been doing instead of my hobby... well, internet mainly. In fact, during one of my 'Ebay drive-bys' I managed to pick up an awesome bargain... and have a box of 36 'on-the-sprue' Squats on the way! They cost me less than £50.00 but have no bases (which isn't a problem). I was very pleased with that!

And that was it... that was all I could muster this week. I couldn't even generate the enthusiasm to throw a sculpt together for the Frothers Unite UK sculpting competition (a Mos Eisley theme) and normally that would have ignited my creative flame. Instead of that sort of thing, I decided in my infinite wisdom to try something new and learn a new trick. So I bought the stuff (really cheaply) and went to You-Tube to get a bit of tuition and this is what I managed to come up with:

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Yes... I have started to mess around with looms, hooks and tiny rubber bands. It is quite relaxing, takes a bit of thought and both my wife and daughter think it is great because they get the finished results. The only down side was that the loom I had was too short... so I bought 2 and with a bit of chopping, bracing and gluing, have joined them together. Who said an old dog can't learn new tricks? I also used to make Scouby bracelets with my daughter so this is just another little handy craft under my belt.

I know it is pretty random on here at the moment but things usually get a bit weird when the weather warms up... maybe sometime soon, I will get back on it and start to focus a bit. I hope so.

Sunday, 15 June 2014

I know I sound like a bit of a stuck record but I have had another slow hobby week this week. I have put a bunch of plastic space Dwarfs into the Dettol and cleaned them off. I then separated them down into their components and quickly discovered that I have got enough heads/bodies/weapons for about 35 troops... but not enough arms. It isn't a problem because I'll just sculpt them on but it does add to the length of time it will take to put them all together... and it is something that will be on the back burner for now anyway.

I've been throwing bids on Ebay this week and failing in glorious fashion... so I don't have any news about that.

I am looking forward to the end of this Kickstarter project (Mechadrome):

I have pledged for a small gathering of these awesome little mechs and I hope that they are as awesome in hand as they appear on the site.

Speaking of mechs, Prodos Games has been updating a lot of their Warzone Resurrection miniatures and they have been doing a great job. The one that really caught my eye was the new version of the Bauhaus Vulkan... a proper stocky little chap:

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I think that this will make an excellent addition to any Squat/Space Dwarf force... oh... and Warzone Bauhaus force (of course).

In other news, the Forum of Doom is having an Unofficial Diorama of Doom competition again this year. At the moment, the final poll is up to vote for a theme. If you want to pop along, have a look and vote it would be very cool of you. Here's the link:

You never know; you may be inspired enough to join in with your own offering.

From a personal hobby perspective, I managed to throw a basecoat on my Torge's Tigers dropship. It is still very WIP but, I think I have the patterns roughly in place:

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So... tomorrow I am travelling down to Somerset for the funeral of my friend who recently passed away after her fight with cancer. It's not one I am looking forward to but I wouldn't miss it for the world...

Sunday, 8 June 2014

On the one hand, our nest of Robins is now empty... the chicks have fledged. Here is a picture of one of them making its way from the fence to the relative safety of a tree:

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Once we are sure that the Robins aren't going to reuse the nest, I'll clear it from the fan duct.

On the other hand, one of my friends from school passed away after a long struggle with cancer. If I was a religious man, I might say that what the lord gives with one hand, he takes with the other... but I'm not... so I'll just say that this week has been one of reflection.

Rest in Peace, Angie. You've earned it.

Wasn't it great to see that old veteran escape from his old people's home and go to France for the D-D commemorations? It was a fine display of the bulldog spirit that I am sure he used when he was involved, for real, 70 years ago. It is also shows that life has to be embraced... you never know when you won't be able to do what you are planning...

In other news, I am involved with the Pay-it-Forward project and have so far ticked off 2 of my 'victims'. With this in mind, I thought it was time to start the next one so here is what I have put together so far:

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The person I am creating this for, likes Pugs so I couldn't think of anyone more appropriate to send this one-of-a-kind 'statue' to. I still have a long way to go and the three miniatures at the front will be removeable so they can be used for gaming.

Apart from that, I haven't done any hobby stuff this week... but as you may have gathered, my mind has been on other things.

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Hello again. Welcome to Inso's World and you find me sat at my PC on a glorious sunny day. I can hear the sounds of lawn-mowers, smell the smoky air of BBQs and listen to the wonderful sound of bird-song. Today is a flip-flop day... so, what has been going on this week? To start with, work has been mental. Every time I clear a job, three come in so I have been run ragged. As a result, my hobby time has been restricted to what I can be bothered with... and that seems to be cheap, plastic dinosars. I have managed to paint another two:

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As you can see, I have now got three finished and the beauty of these is... no matter how badly I paint them, they will still look much better than how they started. That means I can practically switch off while I paint and still end up with an OK finished product... and that works for me when I am tired out.

In other news, I have had a proper 'couple' weekend. Friday me and my better half went to the pub and had such a good evening that we booked a room and stayed over night. After a smashing cooked breakfast, we walked the three miles home in glorious sunshine, through the Oxfordshire countryside. We've been shopping, dining out and enjoying life all weekend while our two teenagers go off and do their own thing. After all this time being attentive parents, we are starting to enjoy being a couple again... and it is great. In fact, this morning we went into town and had brunch together... no children in tow. But enough of all that... here is a picture:

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The other day, I noticed a strange noise coming from the ventilation fan in the kitchen so I investigated and discovered that the outside vent had a hole in it and there appeared to be nest material sticking out. I disabled the fan switch (so it couldn't be switched on), kept an eye on things and soon found out that Robins were busy flitting backwards and forwards with beaks full of food. I decided I'd wait until things were properly settled and take a peek... and the best way I could think of doing it was with a camera... and as you can see, we have at least five Robin chicks in our fan duct. How cool is that?

Ebay has been a friend to me again... and this time Torge's Tigers get the benefit of my luck:

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They get a nice Devilfish to travel about in. As you can see, it is still WIP and still needs clean-up but the basic assembly is finished (apart from the front guns).